March Madness: Sixty-eight teams, endless possibilities

Mar. 17, 2013
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Saint Louis guard Jordair Jett (5) drives past Butler guard Alex Barlow (3) during the first half of the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 tournament at the Barclays Center. Saint Louis is considered a dark horse contender for a deep run in the NCAA tournament. / Anthony Gruppuso, USA TODAY Sports

by Mike Lopresti, USA TODAY Sports

by Mike Lopresti, USA TODAY Sports

Anything is possible, from sea to shining sea â?? or in bracketology, Miami to Gonzaga. The fates in all their fickleness promised us it that way during the regular season in college basketball. We're about to find out if they meant it. If it is a tournament ripe for the rare, or even unprecedented.

Maybe this is the time the so-called mid-majors â?? a phrase becoming as obsolete as "pay telephone" â?? cross the final frontier. A national championship. Maybe Gonzaga or Saint Louis or Creighton.

"They are a legitimate contender for the whole thing," Butler coach Brad Stevens said of Saint Louis, as a three-time loser to the Billikens. "I believe that whole-heartedly."

Maybe glory moves west. There has been one national champion from outside the Eastern time zone in 15 years. There have been only two from the Pacific time zone in 37 years.

Maybe a No. 16 seed wins a game. The unrelenting futility against No. 1 seeds is now 0-112, but last March suggested hope. The average losing margin of the 16-seeds was 15.8 points. The year before, 28.3.

Maybe a team from a non-BCS conference cuts down the nets. The last time that happened was UNLV, in 1990.

Maybe the national championship game is a one-pointer. It's been 24 years.

Maybe the No. 1-ranked team ends up champion. You'd think that would have happened more than just twice in the past 17 tournaments. But the top ranking appears to be a scant upset protection factor in March. Mike Krzyzewski has lost five times in the tournament as coach of a No. 1 team. Michael Jordan lost as a player. So did Larry Bird.

Then again, maybe an unranked team wins the championship. That'd be on the 25th anniversary of the last time it happened; Danny Manning and Kansas in 1988.

Maybe a player from a losing team is so magnificent at the Final Four, he is named most outstanding player. That's happened once in the past 41 tournaments â?? Houston's Akeem Olajuwon in 1983.

Maybe a team seeded lower than third wins the national championship. That hasn't happened since Arizona in 1997.

Maybe the Big Ten produces a national champion. Once in the past 23 tournaments.

Maybe the Final Four has no No. 1 seeds. That's happened only three times in 34 years, but apparently this is the perfect season to voice that as a popular notion. "I don't think a whole lot of one seeds are going to be making the Final Four," Wisconsin forward Mike Bruesewitz declared at a Big Ten tournament press conference.

His reasons for the theory? "I'll let you guys decide all that. I was just giving you all a quote."

There has been something about tournaments in the years that end in 3. Hakim Warrick's famous blocked shot in the final seconds gave Jim Boeheim his only national championship at Syracuse in 2003. Chris Webber called the infamous timeout Michigan didn't have in 1993. North Carolina State pulled off its landmark upset in 1983. Bill Walton went 21-for-22 for UCLA in the championship game against Memphis in 1973. Loyola of Chicago upset Cincinnati at the buzzer in overtime in 1963.

Hard acts to follow, but 2013 has not wanted for drama.

"Every team has gone through a stretch where you scratch your head and can't understand how that happened," Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. "I think there'll be more of the same in the NCAA Tournament."

You'd think so anyway, because the tournament is a very different animal, with its pressures of the moment. "One and done, some can handle it, some can't," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.

If January and February brought out the bizarre, shouldn't March? Maybe. The season certainly displayed the endless potential that college basketball has to astonish and entertain.